xf86-video-geode: default EXA acceleration makes X crash with GX2 on Intrepid

[Stéphane Graber]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-geode

Starting Xorg using the geode driver, selects EXA as AccelMethod and make X to crash.
Forcing XAA workarounds the problem. Starting xorg without any xorg.conf makes it select some framebuffer device that fail, ideally it should select the geode driver so I don't need a xorg.conf just to force de video driver.

[lspci]
00:01.1 VGA compatible controller [0300]: National Semiconductor Corporation Geode GX2 Graphics Processor [100b:0030]

[xorg.log]
(++) Using config file: "/root/xorg.conf.new"
AmdPciProbe: Probing for supported devices!
Unable to open /dev/cpu/0/msr: 2
Unable to read the MSR - reverting to the VSA method.
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType, removing from list!

Backtrace:
0: X(xf86SigHandler+0x79) [0x80c3069]
1: [0xb80df400]
2: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//geode_drv.so [0xb7bc630e]
3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libexa.so [0xb79f74c6]
4: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libexa.so [0xb79f7ae9]
5: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libexa.so(exaDoMigration+0x64a) [0xb79f82aa]
6: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libexa.so(exaFillRegionTiled+0x213) [0xb79f5fd3]
7: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libexa.so [0xb79f6658]
8: X [0x8177744]
9: X(miPaintWindow+0x231) [0x8110801]
10: X(miWindowExposures+0x142) [0x8110b72]
11: X [0x80d84ff]
12: X(MapWindow+0x303) [0x8077573]
13: X(InitRootWindow+0x100) [0x80777c0]
14: X(main+0x416) [0x8071d26]
15: /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe5) [0xb7d3c685]
16: X [0x8071171]
Saw signal 11. Server aborting.
Aborted

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Jordan, any comment?

[Jordan Crouse (jordan-crouse)]

If it is crashing in DoMigration, then it is probably crashing in the upload functions. There is an off chance that it is crashing because we are missing a newer hook that EXA needs. It would really help if you built in debugging and ran GDB on the X server to see where it gets off track.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi stgraber,

Thanks for including the attached files. Could you also include your /var/log/Xorg.0.log?

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

I just did some testing with our Geode at the office.
1) With the workaround
2) With half of the workaround
3) Without the workaround

And linked to a pastebin of the Xorg.log for each.
Hope it helps.

Stéphane

---

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Card0"
 Driver "geode"
 Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"
EndSection
http://pastebin.com/f70dafeb8

---

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Card0"
 Driver "geode"
EndSection
http://pastebin.com/f2a8426c6

---

No xorg.conf
http://pastebin.com/feddc503

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Jordan, do any of the traces provided by Stephane reveal anything useful?

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

One comment recently added by Warren Togami of Red Hat on the X.org wiki states that:

GX2: AccelMethod "XAA" is needed in the Device section of xorg.conf

Can you check if this solves your issue?

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Martin-Éric Racine wrote:
> One comment recently added by Warren Togami of Red Hat on the X.org wiki
> states that:
>
> GX2: AccelMethod "XAA" is needed in the Device section of xorg.conf
>
> Can you check if this solves your issue?
>

It's actually me who did the initial test with forcing XAA and
reproduced it on Fedora :)

So yes, if you force XAA and the geode driver, then it works. If you try
with EXA, X segfaults short after start and if you try without the geode
driver forced you don't even get X to start.

Stéphane
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[Tony Whitmore (tonywhitmore)]

I have had this problem. Manually specifying XAA mode means that X doesn't crash, but it then displays Bug #236019.

Fortunately here the vesa driver works OK, but it would be nice if this driver worked out of the box.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Please try the test package xserver-xorg-video-geode_2.11.3~git20090818-1_i386.deb (or newer) as found in my PPA at https://launchpad.net/~q-funk/+archive/ppa and let us know if this fixes the issue or not.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

I have uploaded version 2.11.3-2 in Karmic a couple of days ago. Can you please try and see if this fixes it?

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Please try the latest package from my personal PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~q-funk/+archive/ppa

Does it resolve the issue?

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

I did a quick test with an up to date Karmic and Martin's PPA, X starts correctly as long as geode is selected as driver.
There is no need of any additional option, though the driver reports screen resolution that are supported by the monitor but the video card can't render (such as 1680x1050), other than that, it seems to work fine and is clearly a lot better than the old crashing driver.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

That would be with 2.11.4.1 packages that are currently sitting in my PPA, pending import of proper 2.11.4.1 packages from Debian into Karmic.

FYI, maximum resolutions supported by the GX2 "Red Cloud" Geode are:

CRT: 1600x1200
TFT: 1280x1024

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Fixes for GX2 support probably need to be backported to Jaunty and Intrepid, maybe even Hardy. However, I have no GX2 hardware to test with (I only have GX1 and LX hardware on hand), so I'm unable to verify which Ubuntu releases need this fix backported.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Since Geode 2.11.4.1 defaults to XAA acceleration on GX2 hardware, I think that we can safely close LP bug #270912.
Any objection?